Remembering the French naval triumph that set the stage for victory at Yorktown -- Our Story

More than 235 years after the Revolution was decided at Yorktown, the visit of the replica 18th-century French frigate Hermione in 2015 offered proud Americans an instructive history lesson.

Without the French ships and sailors who defeated the Royal Navy in the Sept. 5, 1781 Battle of the Capes -- including the Concorde-class frigate that transported the Marquis de Lafayette to Boston the previous April -- Washington's triumph over Cornwallis wouldn't have happened.

The epic clash off the coast lasted only 2 1/2 hours -- and no Americans were involved. But by the time the ships of the line parted just before sunset the British fleet was battered so badly it could not continue the fight. And that ended any hope that the British army could escape the siege that insured America's victory in the Revolution.

"The Battle of the Chesapeake Bay was one of the decisive battles of the world," writes historian Michael Lewis in "The History of the British Navy."

"Before it, the creation of the United States was possible; after it, it was certain."

Inarguably, Washington deserves considerable credit for his plan to deliver a decisive blow against the British by combining his forces with those of the French fleet and army.

Courtesy of the Wooldridge Collection at The Mariners' Museum

This 1782 map of the American and French victory over the British at Yorktown underscores the indispensable role of the French fleet in blocking the Chesapeake Bay and isolating the British army.

This 1782 map of the American and French victory over the British at Yorktown underscores the indispensable role of the French fleet in blocking the Chesapeake Bay and isolating the British army. (Courtesy of the Wooldridge Collection at The Mariners' Museum)

But his preferred target was New York City rather rather than Cornwallis' army at Yorktown, which had been marked as vulnerable by both Lafayette -- who was shadowing Cornwallis from Williamsburg -- and the newly arrived French commander-in-chief Comte de Rochambeau.

When the British fleet was sighted on the morning of Sept. 5, however, the Allies' chances of victory seemed less than likely.

Caught in the midst of unloading French ground forces at Yorktown, the French fleet under Adm. Comte de Grasse was disorganized and scattered. Many of its officers and some of its ships were left behind as 24 ships of the line headed out of the Chesapeake Bay about 11:30 a.m. with both wind and the tide running against them.

Collection of Versailles

French Adm. Comte de Grasse commanded the fleet whose victory over the Royal Navy in the Sept. 5, 1781 Battle of the Capes insured Washington's triumph at Yorktown.

French Adm. Comte de Grasse commanded the fleet whose victory over the Royal Navy in the Sept. 5, 1781 Battle of the Capes insured Washington's triumph at Yorktown. (Collection of Versailles)

Hours passed as the fleets maneuvered for position, during which time the 19 British ships under Adm. Sir Thomas Graves reversed their line and lost their wind advantage.

Instead, they found themselves unable to open their lower gun ports because of the wash from the incoming swells. Conflicting signals added to their difficulties, preventing the British rear from closing up and taking advantage of the separation between the dangerously exposed French vanguard and the rest of their fleet.

When the firing started at about 4 p.m., the French superiority in the number and weight of their guns soon took its toll, forcing two crippled British vessels to fall out of the line. The Royal Navy ships also found themselves out of position as they closed on their foes at an angle that made it impossible to use all their guns.

By the time the sun began to set at 6:30 p.m., the British had sustained heavy damage to 6 ships and lost nearly 350 men killed and wounded. The French losses were less severe, with only 209 casualties and 2 ships damaged.

Though that margin of victory was not overwhelming, it did enable a second French fleet carrying additional forces to enter the bay and reinforce the Allies at Yorktown. And when those vessels combined with the Comte de Grasse's ships to face the British again on Sept. 13 they drove their opponents back to New York by the simple virtue of their far superior numbers.

News of the defeat brought gloom to London, where King George III wrote that "after the knowledge of the defeat of our fleet...I nearly think the empire ruined."

Worse still was the reception among the British forces in Yorktown.

"If you cannot relieve me very soon, you must be prepared to hear the worst," Cornwallis wrote on Sept. 17.

A month later his prediction came true. Not until his surrender on Oct. 19 did a British relief force finally leave too late from New York City for Yorktown.